Project Ara: our best look yet at Google's new modular smartphone

This week in Mountain View, Google held its first-ever developer conference for Project Ara. Developed by a small team within the company called ATAP staffed with ex-DARPA engineers and some of the brightest minds at Google, Ara is a mission to make a modular smartphone. It'd be the last phone you ever needed to buy, because you'd be able to swap out everything from the camera to the display to the battery, in order to always have the exact phone you want.

For ATAP and Google, the goal is to build a device that will make the smartphone accessible to the billions of people who can't afford iPhones and Galaxy S5s. There are huge obstacles everywhere you look, and ATAP is working on an incredibly fast timeline to turn Ara into a product people can buy — there's barely a year left to make it real. But if Project Ara works, if modular smartphones are more than just a Lego-lover's pipe dream, it could change the industry forever. New types of manufacturing, new ways of buying and selling phones, and new ways for consumers to interact with their most personal and most intimate devices.

The project is still in its infancy, but ATAP is finally showing what Ara might be. This is what it looks like.

FOR MORE, CHECK OUT OUR EXCLUSIVE REPORT ON PROJECT ARA'S HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Photos by Dieter Bohn

SEC Charges TelexFree With Fraud, Alleges $1.1 Billion Pyramid Scheme

Forbes

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced it filed civil fraud charges on April 15, 2014, accusing multiple companies under the TelexFree umbrella, as well as officers and promoters, of orchestrating a massive pyramid scheme that targeted Dominican and Brazilian immigrants and took in at least several hundred million dollars from investors worldwide. In addition to the TelexFree entities, the Commission also named eight TelexFree officers and promoters: James M. Merrill, Carlos N. Wanzeler, Steven M. Labriola, Joseph H. Craft, Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, Santiago de la Rosa, Randy N. Crosby, and Faith R. Sloan (collectively, “Defendants”). Each has been charged with multiple violations of federal securities laws. In addition to the charges, the Commission also announced it had obtained an asset freeze securing millions of dollars in funds.   According to the Commission, while investors continue to enroll every day, “it is clear the pyramid has collapsed.”

The unsealing of the charges come days after TelexFree declared bankruptcy in a Nevada federal court and was subsequently the target of an administrative action by Massachusetts securities regulators accusing the company of being a massive $1.1 billion pyramid and Ponzi scheme.  According to authorities, TelexFree advertised itself as a substitute to landline phone services through the sale of its voice over internet protocol (“VoIP”) program, 99TelexFREE.  In addition, the company also sought participants for a passive income program that promised outsized returns through either a $289 or $1,375 investment (as well as a $50 administrative fee).  Investors were able to invest by credit card.  The $289 program offers one advertisement kit and ten VoIP Programs, while the $1,375 option allows the purchaser to receive five advertisement kits and fifty VoIP Programs.  By using the so-called advertisement kits, which is an “effortless” process consisting of several minutes of work per advertisement, participants are purportedly able to generate extensive returns without the need for any VoIP Program sales.  In addition, participants received an additional VoIP Program for posting a daily advertisement, which they were then able to sell to TelexFree for $20.

Through these efforts, participants in either program were promised astronomical returns.  For example, a participant investing $289 that simply placed one advertisement per day could receive an annual profit of at least $681 – a return exceeding 200%.  Similarly, a participant investing $1,375 and placing five advertisements daily could receive profit of $3,675 – a return over 250%.  Not surprisingly, these large returns spurred the participation by many thousands of investors worldwide.

TelexFree also paid handsome commissions to promoters, including bonuses of up to $100 per member recruited and further incentives for direct and indirect participants in their “network.”  Additionally, promoters were promised 2% of all payments to each participant in their network that had at least one active VoIP customer.  According to the Commission, Defendants Vasconcelos, De La Rosa, Crosby, and Sloan were among “the most successful promoters of TelexFree.”

The Commission accused TelexFree of multiple material misrepresentations and omissions to investors, including but not limited to:

• Advertising that Merrill had a B.A. in Economics from Westfield State University when he had only attended the university for two years before dropping out;
• Including a photo of Merrill in front of a three-story building purportedly owned by TelexFree when in fact the company only occupied a single suite in the building; and
• Representing the company had been in the “VOIP telecommunications” business for a decade

Seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to the Commission, TelexFree’s VoIP sales revenue from August 2012 to March 2014 was approximately $1.3 million – barely one percent of the more than $1.1 billion accumulated by participants.  As a result, TelexFree was accused of operating as a classic pyramid scheme – by paying earlier investors not through ongoing operations but from funds from new investors.  Despite the approximately $1.3 million, the Commission also alleges that more than $30 million of investor funds was transferred to TelexFree affiliates or Defendants.

In addition to the Defendants, the Commission also charged several related entities as Relief Defendants, alleging they had received proceeds from the scheme.  According to the Commission, nearly $7 million was loaned or transferred to TelexFree Financial, Inc., TelexElectric, LLLP, and Telex MobileHoldings, Inc.

The Commission is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and civil monetary penalties.  Notably, the Commission is not seeking the appointment of a receiver.  Rather, it appears that future efforts to secure and marshal assets for the benefit of TelexFree victims will come through the efforts of the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee.

At this point, TelexFree has faced charges from solely civil regulators, despite recent news that criminal authorities from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security recently raided the company’s Boston headquarters.  The Boston Globe also reported that TelexFree has retained criminal defense counsel from a high-powered law firm.  

Updates Will Follow. 

Jordan Maglich is a securities law attorney in Tampa, Florida.  Follow Jordan on Twitter at@Ponzitracker or visit Ponzitracker. 

READ MORE AT:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanmaglich/2014/04/17/sec-halts-telexfree-pyramid-scheme/

Google's future phone: The modular Project Ara

Google's Project Ara is a modular smartphone with 

swappable hardware components held together by magnets

(CNN) -- Google is jumping into its next futuristic hardware project. This time it's a modular smartphone dubbed Project Ara that can be customized by swapping out individual pieces, such as the battery and the camera.

The company previewed the very early-stage project at a developer event in Santa Clara, California, this week. Google said the first version of the phone will likely be available in early 2015. Though the company didn't mention a sale price, it said the devices would cost anywhere from $50 to $500 to manufacture, depending on the model.

The phone will come in three sizes, ranging from mini to "phablet," and it will run on a future version of the Android mobile operating system. A frame called the Endo will hold the interchangeable components together with magnets.

The idea is to allow smartphone owners to customize and update their phones on their own -- say, popping out an old battery or broken display for a new version, and thereby creating a device that lasts longer than current smartphones.

Because the Ara project is open-source, the fun will be adding third-party modules or even printing your own with a 3D printer. Instead of relying on a single hardware manufacturer, people could shop around and add unusual elements made by startups, cameras produced by camera companies, or custom hardware for highly specialized work phones.

The modules will be sold much like apps are now, through a custom Google online store and possibly even physical pop-up stores.

An Ara device could be used for five to six years. That lengthy lifespan (for a smartphone) could cut down on electronic waste and shake up the planned obsolescence that seems common with current mobile gadgets.

Instead of dropping a still-working Galaxy S4 for the S5, you could just upgrade the parts you care about, like adding a fingerprint sensor or a better camera.

Project Ara is the brainchild of Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP). When Google bought Motorola's mobile division for $2.9 billion, it also picked up ATAP, its experimental lab where employees work on futuristic projects. Google is already selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo, but it's hanging on to ATAP and its leader, former DARPA director Regina Dugan.

Informativo TelexFREE - 17/04/2014

[TelexFREE] Informativo TelexFREE de 17/04/2014

Phonebloks...A Smartphone Idea...

SHOW WE WANT THIS PHONE

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We want to gather as much people as possible and the show the world there is a need for a phone worth keeping. On the 29th of October 2013 we spread all your messages at the same time using Thunderclap. The more support we gather the bigger the impact.

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